Giant Packhorses Tote Globalization’s Freight
超大貨櫃輪加入海運大軍
By Danny Hakim

A helicopter appeared in the sky over the North Sea.
一架直升機出現在北海的空中。

At about 400 meters long, the ship, the Mary Maersk, was hard to miss; longer than the Eiffel Tower is high, the Mary and its sister ships are the biggest container ships in the world.
全長約400公尺的快桅．瑪莉號貨櫃輪很難不被看見。快桅．瑪莉號的長度大於艾菲爾鐵塔的高度，與它的一些姊妹船同屬舉世最大的貨櫃輪。

Gradually a man was lowered onto the ship’s deck. His job was to pilot the Mary down a narrow dredged channel in the Weser River, toward the port of Bremerhaven, Germany.
一名男子慢慢的垂降在甲板上。他的職責是操控快桅．瑪莉號，沿著威瑟河一段已經疏浚的狹窄河道，把它開進德國的不來梅港。

Later that morning, the Mary would undertake the largest-scale act of parallel parking ever – or at least since the last time it docked, the day before, in Gothenburg, Sweden.
那個上午的稍後，快桅．瑪莉號將進行歷來最大，或至少是它前一天在瑞典哥特堡停泊後的最大平行停泊動作。

As companies look for more efficient ways to move freight from factories in China to consumers in Europe, the Mary is among the newest giants, known as the Triple-E’s. Owned and operated by A. P. Moeller-Maersk of Denmark, the world’s largest container shipping company, the Triple-E’s went into service last year in the $210 billion container industry.
當下航運公司正尋求以更有效率的方式，將出自中國大陸工廠的貨物運送到歐洲消費者的手中，所謂3E級貨櫃輪是它們使用的最新型巨輪，而快桅．瑪莉號就是其中之一。它們由舉世最大的貨櫃航運業者丹麥快桅集團經營，於去年投入總值2100億美元的貨櫃航運業。

Until the late 1990s, the largest container ships could carry about 5,000 steel shipping containers, each about six meters long. Today, such ships are dwarfed. The size of container ships has grown, reflecting their role as the packhorses of globalization. Each year, the maritime shipping industry transports nearly $13 trillion worth of goods, roughly 70 percent of total freight, according to the World Trade Organization.
直至1990年代末為止，全球最大的貨櫃輪滿載時，大約可以載運5000個長度各約6公尺的鋼質貨櫃。如今，它們已是小巫。貨櫃輪的噸位不斷增加，反映它們身為全球化馱馬的角色。根據世貿組織的統計，海上航運業每年平均運送總值將近13兆美元的貨物，約占全球貨物的70%。

The Triple-E’s can carry more than 18,000 containers, piled 20 high, with 10 above deck and 10 below. But they can sail only between Europe and Asia, as their nearly 60-meter-wide hull is too large to fit into American ports or to slip through the Panama Canal.
3E級貨櫃輪可以載運逾1.8萬只貨櫃，可以堆疊20層高，10只在甲板上，10只在甲板下。然而這些貨櫃輪只航行於歐洲與亞洲之間，因為它們的船身寬度將近60公尺，無法在美國各港口停靠，也無法通過巴拿馬運河。

The Mary will stop at a dozen ports, going from Gdansk in Poland to Ningbo, Yantian and Shanghai in China. It carries seafood. It carries auto parts, perfume, grated cheese and frozen pork. While computers and clothing are among China’s biggest exports, chemicals and timber are more likely to leave Europe.
快桅．瑪莉號沿途將停靠10幾處港口，一路從波蘭格但斯克前往中國大陸的寧波、鹽田與上海，運送的貨物包括海鮮、汽車零組件、香水、磨碎的乾酪與冷凍豬肉。電腦與成衣均屬中國大陸的大宗出口貨物，化學藥品與木材則是歐洲的主要出口商品。

The Mary is an apt symbol for an increasingly global marketplace. But it also represents the container shipping industry’s overreaching ambitions. Few carriers besides Maersk are profitable, too many new ships are being built, and demand for space on container ships is slowing as economies in Europe and Asia face challenges.
快桅．瑪莉號是市場日益全球化的貼切象徵，卻也代表著貨櫃運輸業過甚的企圖心。在快桅集團之外，有盈利的航運公司並不多，新建造的貨櫃輪太多，對貨櫃輪空間的需求則因為歐洲與亞洲經濟體面臨挑戰而減少。

Maersk, based in Copenhagen, ordered 20 Triple-E’s from Daewoo of South Korea in 2011, increasing its worldwide capacity more than 10 percent. But demand for space has lagged since 2008, according to Drewry, a shipping consultancy.
總部設在哥本哈根的快桅集團2011年向南韓大宇集團訂購了20艘3E級貨櫃輪，使它的全球貨運承載能量增加逾10%。然而倫敦德魯利航運顧問公司指出，對貨運空間的需求卻自2008年開始衰退。

“It’s a simple logic, bigger is better,” said Ulrik Sanders of the Boston Consulting Group, “if you can fill it.”
波士頓顧問集團的桑德斯說：「邏輯很簡單。（船）越大越好，只要你能填滿它。」

The Triple-E’s were built for $190 million each. By comparison, in 2007 China Shipping Container Lines paid $1.36 billion for eight ships, or about $170 million a ship – but those had a capacity of about 13,300 containers, nearly 5,000 fewer per ship.
3E級貨櫃輪每艘造價1.9億美元。2007年，中國大陸的中海集裝箱運輸股份有限公司（CSCL）以13.6億美元訂購了8艘貨櫃輪，平均每艘1.7億美元。不過它的滿載運輸量約僅1.33萬只貨櫃，每艘少了將近5000只。

“In this down cycle, the new-built prices are low and money is cheap, so you would much rather go and buy the vessels than go and acquire a company” that has older ships, said Martin Dixon of Drewry. “Hence, you’re seeing a lot of investment in bigger ships.”
德魯利公司的迪克森說：「在當前這衰退期裡，新建貨櫃輪的價格比較低，貨幣也便宜。在這種情況下，你會選擇買船而不是買下只擁有較老舊貨櫃輪的公司。這使得業者相繼添購噸位更大的船。」

The bigger ships, though, have been sustained by a growth rate in containerization traffic that has been two and a half to three times global economic growth for decades – and that seems to be coming to an end.
數十年來海上貨櫃運輸量的成長率，一直是全球經濟成長率2.5倍到3倍，也使噸位更大的貨櫃輪獲得了有力的支撐，而這種局面似乎即將結束。

In 2009, Maersk lost $1 billion. This year, the company is on track to make $4.5 billion in profit, according to Bloomberg.
2009年，快桅集團虧損10億美元。彭博公司認為，該集團今年可望有45億美元的盈利。

No country more than China has spurred the containerization boom. Maersk has more than 20,000 employees in China. It operates container terminals at seven ports and has bought Chinese-made ships worth $3.5 billion.
中國大陸是促成貨櫃化熱潮的最主要國家地區。快桅集團在中國大陸聘有2萬多名員工，在7個港口經營貨櫃集散場，而且計已購置總值35億美元的中國大陸製貨櫃輪。

China, too, is trying to foster its own shipping lines. This year, China Shipping Container Lines ordered five ships that will each hold 19,000 containers, about 1,000 more than the Triple-E.
中國大陸也想培養自己的航運公司。CSCL今年訂購5艘運量各1.9萬只貨櫃的貨櫃輪，大約比3E級貨櫃輪多出1000只。

But Jakob Stausholm, the chief strategy, finance and transformation officer at Maersk’s container shipping division, said that there was little room for ships to grow.
不過快桅集團貨櫃運輸部門首席策略、財務及轉換長史托休姆表示，貨櫃輪成長的空間很小。

“I really think that right now,” he said, “given the size of container lines, given the level of sea freight, there is no benefit going toward bigger vessels.”
他說：「我真的認為，以貨櫃輪噸位與運量巨大的現階段而言，採購更大的貨櫃輪並無好處。」

原文參照：
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/05/business/international/aboard-a-cargo-colossus-maersks-new-container-ships.html

Video：Behemoth at Sea
In the chess match that has global powers looking for new ways to move goods around the world, the Mary Maersk and nine other sister ships are the biggest pieces.
http://nyti.ms/1mZkgjM

2014-11-11聯合報/G9版/UNITEDDAILYNEWS 陳世欽譯 原文參見紐時週報八版上